Date Printed: 04/23/2009 JTS Box Number: lFES 72 Tab Number: 57 Document Title: Democracy in Action Document Date: Apr-96 Document Country: South Africa Document Language: English lFES ID: CE01804 ~~nl ~ I~I ~ ~IIII~I~ ~ I~ ~I~ - A 301 - 6 E 0 E * • /Vol 10 No 2 15 April 1996 J 0 URN-A L 0 F THE INS TIT UTE- FOR D E Moe RAe YIN SOU T H A F RIC A He's feted - or hated - as the policeman behind the Magnus Malan triaL But Frank Dutton has doubts abo.ut staying on in the police ................................................................................. 10 DU~®' a1Il1l<dl «il®arit!hD [P)(Q)~ ~ Seven months behind the rest of the country, local government elections loom for KwaZulu-Natal and parts of the Western Cape. In each, voters' interests are ip danger of eclipse by the intense rivalry between the major contenders for power ................................ , ................................ :............... 5 -DOWN °[D)o~o [(i)(S ~OS)O©Il1lD 0[(i) <dI OSal [flrallf I The University of the Western Cape may rejoice in the title "home of the left" but it is far from immune to the tensions erupting on WITH - - campuses all over South Africa, as new rector Cecil Abrahams is eADEM discovering ........................ :.............................................................. 22 Many South African fathers abandon- their children. Dire poverty is the result for most of the next generation._ Mothers who look to the state for help all tell the same story: the ,courts are overloaded, inefficient and unsympathetic to - women .............................................................................. 16 Includes Parliamentary Whip I /' Cartoon: 8RANDAN REYNOLDS EDITORIAL STAFF Keny Cullinan, Janet Levy, Sipho Ngwema, Sue Valentine. Letten and contributions to be addressed to'Democracy In Action, Idasa, Albion Spring, 1 Albion Close, Rondebosch 7700 e-mail janet%[email protected] IDASA OFFICES NATIONAL OFFICE: Albion Spring, 1 Albion Close, Rondebosch 7700 (Tel 021-6898389; Fax 021-6893261) PUBLIC INFORMATION CENTRE: 13th Floor, 2 Long Street, Cape Town 8001 (Tel 021-4183464/9; Fax 021-251042) WESTERN CAPE: 2 Anson Road, Observatory, Cape Town 7925 (Tel 021-471280; Fax 021-473469) JOHANNESBURG: 39 Honey Street, Berea, Johannesburg 2198 (Tel 011-4843694/7; Fax 011-4842610) PRETORIA: 299 Duncan Street, Hatfield, Pretoria 0083 (Tel 012-3421476/7/8/9; Fax 012-433387) DURBAN: 1219 Sangro House, 417 Smith Street, Durban 4001 (Tel 031-3048893; Fax 031-3048891) PORT ELIZABETH: Fourth Floor, Standard House, 344 Main Street, Port Elizabeth 6001 (Tel 041-553301/3; Fax 522587) WORKING FOR DEMOCRACY BLOEMFONTEIN: Third Floor, Stabilitas Bid, 39 Maitland 'Street, Bloemfontein 9301; (Tel 051-4484821; Fax 051-4481580) Opinions expressed in Democracy in Action are not necessarily those of Idasa. ISSN 1017-0243 2. DEMOCRACY IN ACTION ) COMMENT Not m~ny Jacobins-in-the-box ERMANN Giliomee's call for debate on what he calls the particular. This is a powerful recognition of the nature of the South "foundation myths" of the new South Africa (Cape Times, African deal. Here non-racialism is national unity as a pact between 11 March 1996) is welcome. Nationalism and nation build­ leaders drawn from divergent communities. The government of ing are as much about ideas as they are about practice­ national unity is an example of such a pact. and we have not spent enough time and energy sharpening The second tendency is the promotion of a more populist South Hour ideas in the light of the practice of non-racialism. The theoreticians Africanism, what Giliomee in another conteit describes as rugby and practitioners of nation building must surely be willing to revise "world-cup non-racialism". I have remarked before that the their ideas if experience provides convincing reasons to do so. intelligentsia should not become derisive about the popular . Giliomee, who is president of the South African Institute of Race importance of athletic excellence. Sport is both an expression of, and a Relations, deals with a number of so-called "foundation myths", all of vehicle for, evoking positive national feelings about ourselves. which deserve sharp responses. I wish to focus on one: Glliomee's The third tendency is the (controversial but silent) recognition of the characterisation of the ANC's approach to non-racialism. primacy of black African leadership in the construction of the nation. Although he is careful never to say so directly, he suggests that the On one level this is benign majoritarianism, in the sense that the tone ANC's approach to nation building is a Jacobin one. This is a largely of sodety ought to be defined by the people who are In the majority In unflattering term used to describe a power-driven and coercive effort to the country and who took the brunt of apartheid's oppression. The put everyone in this country in the same cultural mould. difficulty here is that there are moments when the moral authority of Closer scrutiny reveals that a Jacobin is someone who is a member of majority leadership gives way to a less benign Africanlsrn. an extremist or radical political grouping; someone who espedally There are, no doubt, other tendencies. I do not see myself as a spedal­ advocates egalitarian democracy and is not averse to using terror to ist on the ANC, but I think it would be fair to say that there is no single achieve his or her desired goals. Presumably, then, a Jacobin nation­ vision of what the South African nation is or should become. There was builder is someone who uses power, reverting to terror when necessary, a time when there was a theory of the nation ("colonialism of a spedal to construct a nation based on egalitarian democratic principles. type" being the most debated incarnation) but this has, under current P~rhaps I mix in the wrong circles but I have not met many Jacobins drcumstances, given way to a much more open and less doctrinaire lately. Many folks advocate egalitarian democracy but they are rapidly approach to nation building. declining in number. The advocates of terror are an extinct spedes in The key aspect to recognise is that there is a process of nation the new South Africa - except for some right-wingers, but they are by building under way, Involving different definition committed neither to democracy nor egalitarianism. So I am . tendencies and intellectua1 positions within and a little mystified by the Jacobin characterisation. outside of the ANC. Perhaps there Isn't enough of To be fair, anyone who tries to develop a reading of the ANC's this taking place, but it is a point of debate. commitments to nation building runs into the immediate problem It is unfair to read the ANC's position on that there seems to be no single prevailing point of view, which is itself nation building from momentary expressions of not such a bad thing. While there is an overarching commitment to a Africanism and it is downright wrong to reduce colour-blind sooety that denies the importance of race as a marker of it, with effect no doubt intended, to Jacobinism. any significance, a number of tendencies can be identified. The one is to actively reconcile divergent and historically antagonistic interests, symbolised by President Nelson Mandela's Wilmot James active rapprochement with w~te Afrikaner constituencies in Executive Director Idasa's mission: I> What To promote and consolidate democracy and a culture of tolerance. I> How By designing and facilitating processes and programmes that transform institutions and empower individuals and communities. I> Why As the basis of sustainable development. DEMOCRACY IN ACTION. 3 . , as emblems for the nation," rugby team rages on, a similar, if less pas­ sionate, discussion is evolving' around the matter of the national bird. A chorus is growing from those who feel that 'the blue crane 'may not ,-. be the most appropriate repre,kntative of the nation in the ornitholog­ ical realm. Their candidate? The rainbow chicken, natch. , - A bird in the oven is worth two in the amablommeblomme. Siog~aJ~daJ~garr' j Ufe in the far Northern Cape has its difficulties. If the heat doesn't drive you round the bend an~ off the right path, something else will. o For a certain National Party member of the provincial legislature, it was the poor reception of SAlle broadcasts in his Boesmanland base. D@=~®~ The consequence, he told the national Senate recently, is that he tunes in for news about South Africaito Radio Moscow and the BBe. O~d \boy? , - So he's obviously at sea. If there was ever any doubt about the pivotal role played by Idasa's Training Centre for Democracy (fCD), it was dispelled recently by the arrival of a .letter from a small organisation in Papua New Guinea. Legendary Ainerican author and political analyst Hunter S Thompson Carrying the TCD address, the letter was addressed to - President is in full, sardonic form in his most recent book, Better Than Sex: Confessions of a Political Junkie." "Nixon was so bad that he could get , Nelson Mandela. I . innocent people in to politics, but Clinton is bad in a way that will get - Part of keeping the people posted. I all but the worst ones out," he, writes. And further to Clinton, "He has the loyalty of a lizard with its tail broken off and the midnight taste of IF!ugrrat o~ ideas a man who might go on a double-date with the Rev Jimmy Swaggart." While the debate about the relative virtues of springboks and proteas - Do we detect a note of fear a~d loathing then? I CONTENTS • 15 APRll·1996 ·EDITORIAL 3 HUMAN RIGHTS, 14 GENDER 27 Not many Jacobins-in:the-box Intolerable dissent? Women dissect the Budget - Wilmot James - Raymond Louw L Debbie Budlender and Pregs Govender .' LOCAL GOVERNMENT 5 MAINTENANCE 16 Too many chiefs?' Failed by their fathers LE'TTERS 28 - Deborah Ewing - Kerry Cullinan I .